A Very Dishonest Scandal (The Hero Next Door Book 5)

by Rebecca King

  A Very Dishonest

  Scandal

  THE HERO NEXT DOOR SERIES (STAR ELITE)

  BOOK FIVE

  by

  REBECCA KING

  © 2020 by Rebecca King

  The moral right of R L King to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  COVER DESIGNED BY COLLYWOMPLES.COM

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  THE LOCAL HEROES SERIES (STAR ELITE)

  TUPPENCE

  OTHER BOOKS BY REBECCA KING

  CHAPTER ONE

  Luke Horcroft dropped the heavy bag he was carrying onto the floor of his new home and arched his aching back. He surveyed the huge sitting room before him with a soft smile of delight. It was one of several downstairs rooms and empty except for a teetering tower of newly stacked boxes piled high in the corner of the room. But despite the boxes and lack of furniture the place was already starting to feel like home. A huge sigh of satisfaction escaped him as he surveyed what was going to be his empire, his sanctuary, and the first house he had ever been able to call home: Wickerstone.

  ‘There is a lot of work to do here,’ his good friend and colleague, Peregrine Malvern, announced flatly, staggering past with another pile of boxes, which he unceremoniously dropped onto the floor beside the stairs.

  ‘It is good of you to help me with this,’ Luke said, relieving Roger of the heavy pile of boxes he carried.

  Peregrine grinned and side-stepped out of the way to allow Roger Monteys, another colleague, and their good friend, to hand his boxes to Luke.

  ‘That’s the last of it. There is just the furniture to go,’ Roger gasped, brushing dust off his rolled-up shirt sleeves.

  ‘I should have thought that chasing after all those children of yours would have kept you a little less portly,’ Hamish teased, patting Roger’s wash board flat stomach.

  Roger grinned widely. His voice was rich with laughter when he teasingly protested: ‘What do you mean, ‘all those children’? Leonora and I only have a few.’

  Hamish laughed and raced outside to help Daniel drag a large dresser off the back of one of two heavily laden carts filling up the driveway beside the house. Luke grinned and hurried after Peregrine to help unload the various items of furniture which would make his new home a little more liveable. A table, chairs, several dressers, huge beds, several pictures, and boxes and boxes of pots, plants, and paraphernalia were all carried into the house.

  ‘It was kind of Leonora and Annalisa, and of course Geranium and Tabitha to help with all of this,’ Luke murmured to his friends when they had made the last of many trips with the heavy furniture.

  Joshua grinned. ‘As soon as I mentioned that you had purchased your own home, Annalisa announced that you were going to need help. She rounded up the women. You can blame her for starting all of this.’

  Roger shook his head and looked ruefully at Luke. ‘You probably won’t thank them when you realise how much this is going to cost you. Never let a woman go shopping for you.’

  Luke grinned. ‘It’s well made furniture, and the things I will need. I confess that I wouldn’t know where to start. I usually sleep standing up, eat when I can, and have two changes of clothes.’

  Ronan patted him companionably on the shoulder. ‘As we all had when we were bachelors. Now, thanks to the love of the good women in our lives, we have a heck of a lot more than that.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Dean muttered from the doorway. ‘There is something to be said for being a bachelor. I mean, as soon as I have found my own home, I can have somewhere to stay that will be warm and comfortable, but won’t have to step around children, or have a demanding wife to accommodate whenever I am at home. I can have the best of both worlds really.’

  ‘Says he without a wife,’ Joshua muttered.

  Ronan rolled his eyes. ‘Do you want to explain it to him or shall I?’

  ‘I know there are other benefits besides having someone to run the house while I am away,’ Dean grinned.

  ‘Thank God for that,’ Hamish grumbled. ‘I thought for a moment there we were going to need to draw pictures.’

  Dean huffed a laugh and disappeared outside before he got any more teasing from his blissfully married colleagues.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to stay with us for a while and move in here when you have unpacked?’ Roger offered once he was alone with Luke in what was going to be the sitting room. ‘Leonora has pestered me to ask you and not return home until I have. She won’t let you hear the last of it if you don’t agree to stay with us. Oh, by the way, she has sent you a ‘welcome to your new home’ gift.’

  Roger dropped a heavy basket at Luke’s feet. The smells emanating from it were so delicious that Luke’s empty stomach rumbled loudly.

  ‘I have a lot of work to do here,’ Luke said, eyeing the basket longingly. Rather than indulge in something to eat, though, he eyed the sunlight streaming into the room. ‘It makes sense for me to make a start on unpacking everything and keep working until it is too dark to see. So, thank you for your generous offer but I need to stay here. Besides, I plan to go into town at first light tomorrow.’

  He was too polite to say as much but Luke didn’t want to encroach on Roger’s extremely busy and noisy family home. Leonora and Roger were already run off their feet with two children, both under two years of age. While Luke didn’t doubt that Roger’s offer was genuine, the last thing Leonora needed was another mouth to feed and someone else to look after.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to help you unpack?’ Peregrine asked, eyeing the pile of heavy furniture and the stairs warily. ‘Or at least help you move some of this.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ Luke called to Daniel just as he was about to disappear out of the front door carrying two empty jugs.

  ‘I am going to the tavern for some ale. You can’t carry this lot upstairs by yourself, and I am thirsty, and hungry. From the look of the size of that basket you don’t have enough to feed all of us. I’ll fetch something to eat as well, then you can save what Leonora has sent you for tomorrow, so you don’t starve to death. God only knows you are lousy at cooking.’ With that, Daniel marched off into the early evening dusk leaving Luke to stare after him with a wide grin creasing his face.

  ‘The bloody cheek of it. The last time I got stuck with him looking after our food we ended up eating sodding apples for two days straight. I am used to life in the dark but not stuck in a sodding outhouse.’ Luke rolled his eyes and shook his head as his colleagues began to tease each other about their cooking skills.

  ‘God knows, I can’t go back until I
can assure Annalisa that you are settled. If I even try to lie to her, I will never live with myself, or her. If she suspects that I haven’t helped you move into your new home properly, she will be round here first thing in the morning and you won’t get rid of her,’ Joshua muttered in a voice that was rife with amusement. His tone left nobody in any doubt about how much he adored his wife.

  ‘She kicked you out of the house, didn’t she?’ Luke teased.

  Joshua rolled his eyes but couldn’t withhold his grin. ‘She says I am a bad influence on Archie.’

  ‘You are his father. How can she claim you are a bad influence?’ Luke asked.

  Even Roger stopped unpacking one of the boxes to listen to what Joshua had to say.

  ‘I cannot resist him. I want to play with him, even when he is sleeping.’ Joshua grinned unrepentantly. ‘He was getting grumpy because he needed a nap, but I wanted to play. Annalisa told me to go away and let him sleep. She said I was more use here and that I wasn’t to return until Archie had enjoyed a good nap.’

  ‘Have you ever contemplated marrying?’ Roger asked Luke.

  While he knew that his colleagues expected him to reject any possibility of finding a wife, Luke didn’t. He contemplated Roger’s question seriously for several moments.

  ‘Yes, in all honesty, I have,’ he said eventually. ‘I think that is why I have moved here.’ Luke held his arms aloft. ‘Look at this place. It is huge. Far too big for just me to live in.’

  ‘Nobody can criticise you for purchasing a house before you find a bride,’ Joshua murmured. ‘You all know how reluctant I was to marry when I first met Annalisa but asking her to marry me was the best decision of my life.’

  Luke wanted a little of the happiness some of his colleagues had found. It had been Ronan’s recent engagement that had made him realise it was time to find someone he could have a home and family with. When he had found Ronan deep in sozzled misery in the tavern and realised that another of his friends was about to fall into the parson’s trap, he had felt sympathy for his friend’s plight. But when Ronan had finally found the courage to do something about securing his happiness with Geranium, Luke had felt more than a little envious.

  ‘Why have you never married?’ Ronan asked him quietly.

  ‘I have never met anybody I can foresee myself wanting to go home to,’ Luke replied honestly. ‘Most of the women I have met I am happy to spend time with, but not for long. The problem is that I often find their company tedious and cannot wait to leave them again.’

  ‘You will know when you meet the woman you should marry,’ Peregrine warned. ‘You will find yourself wanting to be with her all the time.’

  ‘You will worry about her when you aren’t together,’ Joshua added.

  ‘You will hurry home every chance you get, no matter what the weather or what part of the investigation we are stuck in,’ Roger mused.

  ‘You will worry about her when you can’t see her and it will drive you out of your mind,’ Peregrine muttered.

  ‘But it makes you happy when you do finally manage to get home to her,’ Roger added with a sage nod.

  ‘I am sure that I will know when I meet her,’ Luke agreed. ‘If I don’t find her then I am going to stay here anyway. This is the first house I have ever purchased. Do you know that? While it is large, it is a home. I am four and thirty years old and have done nothing over the last few years except race up and down the country working for the Star Elite. It is time I had somewhere to call home. It would be wonderful to have a wife and child here waiting for me but if I don’t marry, at least I have somewhere I can call my own.’

  Roger clapped him companionably on the shoulder. ‘I think you should contemplate what your need to purchase this house is telling you.’

  Luke lifted his brows at him. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘This house is about three miles away from the Star Elite’s base, four miles away from Peregrine and Joshua, and five miles away from Ronan. We are all living within a few miles of each other. Your wife wouldn’t be on her own when you are away, would she? I mean, we are a local team and all live nearby,’ Joshua argued. ‘If you do leave a bride here at least she isn’t too far away from any of the other wives, is she?’

  Roger nodded. ‘Our wives will include her in what they do.’

  ‘They have clubbed together to sort out this lot,’ Peregrine agreed. ‘I am sure the wives will insist on including whomever you marry with their little plots and plans.’

  ‘God help us,’ Roger hissed.

  Peregrine and Joshua laughed but none of the men minded any scheme the women came up with because it made them happy, and in Luke’s case had given him the things he needed to turn his house into a home.

  Eventually, the mirth died, and Roger looked solemnly at his friends as he said quietly: ‘I have heard from Sir Hugo. We have a new investigation waiting for us, but we have a few days off before we start it because we are waiting for information from a source of his. Once that is up and running, we are going to be busy, so it is best that we get you, Luke, settled in here and then spend a bit of time at home.’

  ‘Are we likely to be called away?’ Joshua asked with a disgruntled scowl.

  ‘I hope not,’ Roger sighed. ‘But with our investigations, who knows?’

  ‘You should spend this time with your wives and children,’ Luke warned them both as he eyed the boxes he had yet to unpack.

  ‘That is one of the perks of working in a local team, Luke. We get to go home at night,’ Roger reminded him. ‘If we have to travel anywhere it will only be for a day or two.’

  ‘Come on, let’s get back to work. It won’t be long before Daniel’s back with that food,’ Joshua announced, pushing to his feet.

  ‘Are you going to help me drag this dresser upstairs, or should I drop it onto my back like a turtle?’ Peregrine grumbled from the hallway.

  ‘I’ll help,’ Roger offered before hurrying out of the room.

  Luke picked up the box at his feet and carried it into the kitchen. But with little interest in unpacking, he began to wander around his new home.

  Wickerstone was a large three storey building located in the middle of nowhere. With six bed chambers, a large study, conservatory, library, morning room, breakfast room, sitting room, servant’s quarters, and a huge kitchen, it had everything a growing family could want. It was perfect for his needs given it had a long row of stables and outbuildings to the side of the property together with a barn, a lake, a meadow with woods, and hundreds of acres of fields behind that. On the horizon was the small village of Oakley Bridge. In the opposite direction was the large industrial town of Mirsley Ford. While the house was isolated, people and shops weren’t too far away.

  They are close enough for a wife to reach if she needed something.

  Overall, Luke was pleased with his new purchase, and looked forward to being able to turn it into a home. While the property needed a little work, he had time to repair it whenever he was at home. There was no rush; no reason why all the repairs had to be done now. It was his home, somewhere he could stay for the rest of his life if he chose. Consequently, he could take as long as he wanted putting his own personal stamp on the place.

  ‘This is a new beginning,’ he whispered.

  For the first time in his life, Luke was proud of what he had achieved. Having come from an impoverished background and fought all his life in either the Army or the Star Elite, it was a little unusual to have somewhere permanent to stay. But he was pleased with his choice and looking forward to a completely different challenge in life to go with it: marriage.

  ‘All I need to do now is find a bride,’ he muttered. But with a rueful shake of his head, Luke retreated to the safety of his house and set about helping his friends instead.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Rosemary Tynesdale studied the crumbling frame of the front window of her father’s shop with a frown of concern. She brushed the worst of the rotten wood off her fingers and winced when she felt a cold
draught creep into the room through the damaged window frame.

  ‘Have you seen this?’ she called to her father when she heard movement on the opposite side of the room.

  Her father, Thomas, barely looked up. A deep frown marred his brow as he studied a piece of paper in his hand.

  When she didn’t get a response, Rosemary glared at him. ‘Did you hear me?’ Her gaze fell to the paper he was reading intently. ‘What’s that?’

  Thomas sucked in a swift breath. ‘What’s what, dear?’

  ‘What are you reading?’ Rosemary crossed the room. It was rare to see her father looking so worried. It was even more concerning that before she reached him, her father shoved whatever he had been reading into his pocket.

  ‘What did you say just now?’ Thomas asked, keeping his gaze averted because he knew how well his daughter could read his facial expressions.

  ‘I asked what you were reading,’ Rosemary replied patiently but firmly, leaving her father in no doubt that she wasn’t going to allow her questions to be avoided.

  ‘I thought you said something about the window,’ Thomas muttered, squinting myopically across the room at the tall bay window of the shop.

  ‘The frame is rotting. It needs repairing,’ Rosemary informed him bluntly.

  ‘I will fix it,’ Thomas replied absently, waving his hand airily around his head as if trying to flap away a fly.

  Rosemary sighed heavily. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, yes. I have said I would,’ Thomas snapped dismissively before shuffling into his work room at the back of the shop.

  Rosemary hurried after him. She was surprised to find Thomas pouring a large goblet of wine with a hand that shook alarmingly. She knew then that something was terribly wrong. Her father, a master craftsman clock maker, had one of the steadiest hands in the county on account of his work being so delicate. To see such visible shaking was rare, and alarming.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Rosemary persisted.